The Future of Manufacturing: Collaborative Robots in the Factories

The world has experienced a radical change with the advancements in technologies and systems that aid daily activities. Particularly, automation has played an important role in increasing the productivity and quality of the production process in various industries. Within the automation industry, robots have already been established; however, one of the fastest-growing segment of robotics industry is the use of cobots for various industrial and healthcare applications. Cobots are collaborative robots, which are programmed to work in collaboration / cooperation with humans in a shared space or to work safely in close proximity. Unlike robots, cobots do not displace the manpower, instead work alongside the humans.

What are the key advantages associated with the use of cobots?

Cobots have made the automation accessible, safe and affordable across various industries by offering various advantages over the traditional industrial robots.

What are the key industries that have adopted cobots for different tasks?

Due to their collaborative nature, there is already an evident increase in the adoption of cobots in those industries, for performing risky and repetitive tasks.

Here is a glimpse of different tasks that are already being undertaken by cobots across some of the aforementioned industries.

Who are the leading players in the cobots market?

With more than 250 cobots already available in the market, the market is still dominated by some of the established players in this domain. These include Universal Robots, Techman Robot, Fanuc, KUKA, Doosan Robotics, Aubo Robotics, ABB, Yaskawa, Precise Automation, and Rethink Robotics.

Cobots have already proved their potential in various industries. Moreover, cobots and humans are increasingly working together to drive the intelligence, process automation as well increasing the efficiency and eliminate the low-value added activities. These benefits allows the employees to focus on creating customer and business value. Having said that, we are laid to believe that cobots are likely to offer lucrative business opportunities for all the stakeholders working in this domain.